Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights Day.
President Zuzana Čaputová said in a speech: ‘We need to work to ensure that differences based on disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity are not grounds for exclusion. Indifference leads to violence, bullying, or the existential hardship of people and families in our neighbourhoods.’
Amnesty International took the occasion to issue a report about the state of human rights in Slovakia.
It criticised the persistence of discrimination against Roma, the failure to adopt a definition of rape based on the concept of consent, and the fact that women's rights have remained a marginal issue in Slovak public discourse.
‘Although we would like to talk about achievements in the field of human rights in 2023, we have to say that the year that is ending is also proof that human rights remain at the tail end of the Slovak political representation's concerns,’ AIS said.
Two thirds of Roma children get education in classes of mostly Roma. A disproportionate number of Roma lived in segregated, unsafe housing with inadequate access to water, sanitation and electricity.
LGBTI+ people continue to be the target of hate and attacks, and Amnesty sees a systemic effort to suppress the rights of transgender people.
